10 Minutes With Tipton: Sierra View CEO Donna Hefner
10 Minutes with Tipton is a new series on the Education Page. Students in the After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program at Tipton Elementary School take time to Zoom with individuals in the community to ask them questions about their jobs, lives and strategies they can use in their own lives to help them become college and career ready.
What is your job title/ role in our community?
Donna Hefner, Chief Executive Officer/president of Sierra View Medical Center
Please tell us a little bit about yourself — Your background, where you grew up, your family.
“I was born in Exeter and grew up in a small house outside of Plainview and Strathmore. My mom still lives there (53 years later). I now reside in Springville, but I have been part of the community my entire life.
I attended Sunnyside Elementary, Pioneer Middle School and Monache High School. After graduating high school, I went to Porterville College, COS, CSU Fresno and CSU Dominguez Hills. I believe in always continuing your education and thriving to learn something new!
I have three children ages — 29, 26 and 22 and two grandchildren. I love spending time with my family! I especially enjoy being outdoors, because I spend so much time inside.
What do you love about your career?
“I say my career is the business of people. We take care of people and I love being a leader of the people. Sierra View has amazing employees and I am lucky to work alongside them. Of course we take care of people when they are sick, but really, we are here to influence people’s health and encourage them to live a healthy and happy lifestyle.”
When did you begin your career? Can you provide us with a career history?
“I started here at Sierra View (in 1990) as a Unit Clerk working on the then, cancer unit, which we now call, oncology. I was working part-time as I was working on my prerequisites to go into the RN program at (College of the Sequoias).
“After becoming an R.N. I worked in the Medical/ Surgical which I loved. A couple of years later I found myself gravitating toward Surgery and I eventually became a Recovery Room R.N., Operating Room R.N. and then the leader of Surgical Services. Surgery was fascinating to me!
Following my role as Surgical Services leader, I went into Risk Management and then into Vice President of Patient Care Services. In 2013, I was appointed interim CEO and have been here ever since.
I get so happy to see people I know in the hallway. I am very relationship oriented because I am from the community. I want to see people get what they need and if I see people get what they need that brings a lot of happiness to everybody.”
What do you dislike about your career?
“I am a pretty positive person, so I don’t know that I have one thing that stands out that I dislike. When I think about a challenge that we face in this setting; I think about people not getting the services they need; and I don’t like that.”
Being in a rural community, we don’t have all of the services, or all of the specialist’s people need — so we rely on transferring our patients outside of the community in order to get the care. This is something that weighs on me. We do our best, we have a great team, but knowing we don’t have everything is a disappointment, so we focus on what we can do and being great at it.”
Would you encourage others to pursue your career?
“I really do encourage young people to explore health care careers. Most young people in school think of healthcare as nurses and doctors, but there’s so much opportunity in a hospital community. We are encouraging people to become professionals in health care because we will need people to take care of the aging population. We have radiology, record keeping, information technology, engineering, housekeeping, dietetics, physical therapy, speech therapy. It takes a big team to take care of people and that’s one thing about health care; the sky’s the limit.
“My dad always told me, (he passed away about 23 years ago) ‘Donna learn as much as you can about technology.’ I took programming classes thinking that’s what I needed to learn about technology. I always wanted to be a nurse since I was little, so I took classes on business, technology and nursing, so I encourage students to become wellrounded. You have to be a sponge and soak it up — soak up as much knowledge as you can!”
What is something that might surprise members of the public (either about you, or your career)?
“I come from a working family. My Mom and Dad are both residents of Porterville and as one of three kids they always instilled in me the importance of having a good work ethic. I was given lots of chores around the house and outside of the house. My first job was at 14 years old and I was a dishwasher at the Paul Bunyan.
“I think it’s important to really give back and sometimes you’re able to do that in volunteer work, or jobs, or chores, or helping other people out. Giving of yourself in service is probably one of the greatest gifts you can offer someone.”
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we know your job and the jobs of healthcare workers have been especially challenging these last two years. What have you all learned? What are some things you are particularly proud of?
“In the beginning it was really scary because we didn’t know a lot about it, but we knew people could get really sick. We have learned to ask for help. That was one of the first things I’ll say. Never be afraid to ask for help. There was a time as a CEO that I was pulling out every trick I had ever learned, and a time that I didn’t know what to do next; so I reached out to the local government and said ‘We need help.’ By asking for help and being vulnerable people will show up and people will help.
“Number two is there were a lot of the rules, just like you have in school, that we have to follow, but in this pandemic there were times when the rules were modified to the point where we could be innovative and respond with innovative ideas. We put tents outside of our ER, so that we could keep people safe. Like you going home and doing school virtually, we had to come up with creative ideas. Our whole team was focused on one issue and that was to deliver care and take care of people to the best of our ability.”
What can we, as a community, do to protect ourselves and our loved ones?
“It sounds basic but stay home if you’re sick, check your temperature and wash your hands.” Protect the vulnerable populations and your loved ones.
Are there any projects Sierra View is currently working on, or completed that you are proud of that you would like to share?
“As the CEO I get the opportunity to present the ideas to the board on things we would like to do; we call it a strategic plan. One thing in our community that we have a lot of, you may even know someone who has it and that is, diabetes. Diabetes is very prevalent in our community and can eventually lead to heart disease. So, in 2017 we opened the doors to Sierra View’s Cardiac Catheritization Lab with a team of physicians and medical professionals who are skilled in cardiac care. It offers patients diagnostic and preventative services as well as interventional services. Our lab was featured in the U.S. News World Report for best 2022 best hospitals.” Carmina Sanchez and Maite Rodriguez are both seventh-graders at Tipton Elementary School in the After School Education and Safety (ASES) Program. Carmina’s interests are spending time with her friends and Maite’s interests are playing soccer and football.